


How Many Fathoms

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 10:29:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1384210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John has a run-in with Ancient technology.  Again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Many Fathoms

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #037 "deep"
> 
> Title is from Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_ , act IV, scene i ( _that thou didst know how many fathom deep I am in love!_ )

The first time Rodney had seen a piece of Ancient technology, a palm-sized silver something that lit up bright blue in Jack O’Neill’s hand, he’d thought that the Ancients must have been the most visionary engineers in the universe.

After half a decade in the Pegasus Galaxy, though, he knew the truth— the Ancients had been a bunch of reckless, self-righteous _children_ who left their potentially-deadly toys lying around and didn’t seem to care how many people got hurt.

People like John.

“I can’t find a single thing wrong with him, lad,” said Carson, his accent getting thicker with his frustration. “I’ve run every test we have, twice, and they all say that the colonel is perfectly healthy. Medically speaking, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be awake right now.”

“Well, he isn’t,” Rodney snapped. “He’s unconscious, and expecting me to save the day, _as usual_ , because he couldn’t keep his hands to himself!”

“Now, Rodney…” Carson began.

“And he’d better not think that this damsel-in-distress routine will get him out of a serious ass-kicking when I finally figure this out!”

“I know,” said Carson, sympathetically. He squeezed Rodney’s shoulder and left, and Rodney collapsed into the hard plastic chair beside John’s bed.

His fingers itched with the need to do something, to fix this, but at the moment, there was nothing he could do. The device that had rendered John unconscious had been brought back to the lab, but its energy readings spiked wildly every time anyone with the gene even got near it. Zelenka and a team of non-gene-carriers were working on it, but the schematics they’d sent him so far didn’t show any control crystals, or even any moving parts.

The only thing they’d found were a few lines of Ancient text that were giving the Linguistics Department conniptions.

“Look at all the trouble you’re causing, Sheppard,” Rodney muttered. “Always have to be the center of attention, don’t you?”

John didn’t move.

“If you don’t wake up on your own, I’m going to have to come in there and get you. I’ve done it before, and I’m not afraid to do it again.”

Rodney reached out to take John’s hand. It was cold, like he was already losing John, so Rodney wrapped both of his own hands around it, holding on tight.

“You have to come back,” he said, softly. “Because I, as many people have told me over the years, am a selfish bastard and I don’t like to give up what’s mine. And you’re definitely mine, John.”

He could feel John’s pulse, slower than normal, and Rodney realized that he knew what John’s normal pulse rate was. He knew the normal readings for everything that the infirmary equipment monitored, could tell when they were changing long before the alarms went off.

“You know,” Rodney continued, “I’ve always figured that I would have to watch you go first, with you being Colonel Death Wish. So I’ve resigned myself to see you shot, or blown up, or something else related to your heroic stupidity— though, for the record, I’ve also imagined us surviving to be old and gray and see one of Torren’s kids running Atlantis. But I am not prepared to sit here and watch you just not wake up.”

Rodney leaned forward, resting his forehead on John’s shoulder.

“Wake up, John. _Please_.”

Warm fingers closed around his, and Rodney sat up to find John smiling at him. “Hey, Rodney.”

“Sheppard,” he said. “You’re—”

“Rodney,” said Teyla, skidding into the infirmary with Ronon on her heels. She stopped short at the foot of the bed, her smile vanishing, then reappearing instantly. “John!”

The colonel frowned at them. “What happened? I remember touching a weird-looking egg-timer on that planet, and then…”

“And then you lost consciousness,” Rodney snapped, suddenly angry. “As usual, you touched something without knowing what it was, and you… you just _crumpled_ and—”

“Hey,” said John. He put his free hand over both of Rodney’s, which were still holding his. “I’m okay. You figured it out, and I’m okay.”

“But I didn’t,” said Rodney, miserably. “No one with the gene could get near the device. Zelenka must have fixed it.”

“Radek did not find the solution, either,” said Teyla. “That is what I had come to tell you. The linguists finished translating the writing the device, and they discovered that it was intended to be an aid to very deep meditation.”

“I hate meditation,” John muttered, then winced. “Sorry, Teyla.”

“I knew that already, John,” she said, patting his ankle. Then, she frowned. “According to the translation, this device was meant to be used by two people. One would meditate, and the other would act as… an anchor, of sorts, to ensure that he could regain consciousness in the event that he did not achieve Ascension.”

John frowned back at her. “But I was the only one who was even near the thing when I touched it. Are you saying that I should have Ascended? But then, how did I come back, if I didn’t have an anchor?”

“You guys are both idiots,” said Ronon, flatly, as Teyla smiled knowingly down at the bed. 

Rodney realized that he was still holding John’s hand and tried to pull away, but John tightened his grip.

“I heard your voice,” John said, quietly. “I don’t know where I was, exactly, but I heard your voice and I followed you back.”

“Oh,” said Rodney, because he’d always thought he’d been following John— in the field, into trouble. But maybe they had been following each other all along. “Oh.”

“We will tell the others you are well, John,” said Teyla.

She patted John’s ankle again and left with Ronon, who snorted a laugh at them as he went.

“So,” said John, making no move to untangle their fingers. “I’m pretty sure you threatened to come after me.”

“I did,” said Rodney, and added stubbornly, “I would have.”

John smiled. “Good,” he said, and leaned in to kiss him.

THE END


End file.
